Dashing Over Ice
by Prospero's Pal
Summary: Final Chapter uploaded, story is complete! Mars and Dash go skating and almost end up as dinner!
1. Something's Up

Marshall Teller recognized the solitary figure sitting on the bench across from the town pond. The water was frozen solid and workmen were preparing the final touches for the annual opening of the municipal skating rink.

Mars rode carefully on the icy sidewalk and stopped in front of the bench, its lone occupant didn't seem to notice he was there. The lanky teen jumped off his bike, extended the kickstand and waited for it to fall over. It didn't. That was always a lucky omen. Mars wiped the snow off the bench and took a seat next to Dash X.

Without even glancing in Marshall's direction, Dash spoke. "Teller, what's all the commotion? Is there going to be some sort of ritual over there? Maybe a goat sacrifice?" Dash's gaze remained focused on the workmen. Mars thought he seemed a little down and distant.

"No goats, man, just delicious hot chocolate and cookies! The opening of the municipal skating rink is tonight. In fact, I'm glad I found you, everyone wants you to come." Mars waited for a reaction, there was none. "I guess that sort of thing doesn't interest a sophisticated bigshot and tough guy like you, huh?" Marshall tried his best to sound sarcastic but ended up just sounding snotty.

Dash glanced over at Mars. "That's not much of an invitation, calling me names and all. Who's this _everyone_ who wants me to come to this shindig?"

Mars rolled his eyes. "Well, um, there's my mom and dad, Simon, Syndi, the usual suspects. My parents are always asking about you, you know. They worry about stray puppies, homeless kittens, and lost boys with no souls." Mars laughed. Dash looked hurt for a second and then exploded. _"I have a soul, goddamnit!_ " He kicked the snow with his right foot and started to get up.

Marshall apologized immediately. "Jeez, man, take it easy, it was just a joke. I know you have a soul. Don't go, ok?" Dash looked appeased and sat back down. Mars continued, "Anyways Syndi thinks you're hot stuff, don't ask me why, and Simon is convinced you're some kind of space zombie, he's a big fan and they both really want you to come tonight."

Dash looked a little sad. "What about you?"

Marshall was confused. "What about me, what?"

"I mean that's all very nice, those people want me to go, but you never said _you_ wanted me to go to this soirée." Dash turned his gaze back at the activity across the street. He was in a strange mood today.

Marshall was annoyed. "Of course I want you to go! I'm the one telling you about this! God, Dash! You can be so um, so um, _frustrating_ at times!"

"Invite me properly or forget the whole deal." The grey haired boy gave Mars his snarkiest look, half frown and half snarl. Marshall sighed. He realized Dash wasn't quite himself and decided to cheer him up. He fell to his knees in front of his annoying friend and held up his hands in a pleading fashion.

"Please, Mr. Dash, sir. Would you please do me the honor of accompanying me to the big fancy par-tay this evening? Please, sir, would you?" When nothing happened after several seconds, Mars stood up and theatrically turned his back on Dash with his nose up in the air. The boy with the grey hair laughed out loud.

"Well, that's a proper invitation!" Dash grabbed Marshall by the seat of his pants and pulled him back down on the bench next to him. "I guess if it means so much to you, maybe I could come. I don't have any money, though."

"It's all free, man! Free skate rentals, free hot chocolate, free food, free everything!" Mars poked Dash's side. "C'mon, you'll have a great time!"

Dash smiled at the younger boy's enthusiasm, it was one of the things he loved about Marshall, his ability to get hyper-excited about dull, ordinary crap. He decided to have some fun with him.

Dash shrugged and threw his hands in the air. "I can't skate."

"I'll teach you!" Marshall countered.

Dash shrugged again. "I'm a klutz, I'll run over small children and kill them!"

"Their parents will get over it," Mars replied.

"The ice will melt and everyone will drown and they'll blame me! _People always blame me!"_ Dash looked slightly embarrassed, like that last bit sort of slipped out accidently.

Marshall was losing his patience. "Look, Dash, that pond freezes solid as a rock every year on December 1st and remains frozen until March 13th. Nobody knows why, it's just an Eerie thing. It's not going to melt."

Dash was enjoying himself. "What if … "

"Will you please quit it?" Marshall balled up his fist and hit Dash on his thigh. "No more freakin' excuses! You will come to this thing tonight or I will personally kill you!"

Dash rubbed his leg. "Hey, that hurt!"

"Good!" Mars was upset; Dash could see it in his eyes.

"Oh I give up, what time?" Dash stood and playfully limped around for a few steps.

Marshall beamed. "6:00. I'll meet you right in front there, where they're putting up the big gate. Don't flake out on me, man. I really do want you to come and enjoy yourself for once, and don't be late!"

"Sure, 6:00 sharp, no latesies!" Dash watched as Marshall climbed on his bike.

"Teller!" Dash shouted just before Marshall rode off. The younger boy looked up.

"Thanks." Dash waved and turned away.

Puzzled, Mars rode past him, circled back and blocked his path. "Um, you're welcome?"

This is what Dash said _inside his head_ :

"I know I'm a jerk and pretend I don't have any feelings and nothing scares me but I'm frightened and hurting and lonely all the freakin' time but you always make me feel better. Thanks for being my friend, Mars."

This is what Dash _actually said out loud:_

"Should I wear my ball gown or is this thing casual?" He erupted into laughter and patted Mars on the shoulder as he moved past him. "You're a riot, Teller. Everything's such a big deal to you. See you later."

"Not if I see you first!" Mars stuck his tongue out and rode away. Both boys were laughing as they moved away in opposite directions.


	2. A Natural Skater

Six o'clock came and went and there was still no sign of Dash. Marshall paced nervously back and forth, pausing every few seconds to look around at the crowd. He glanced at his watch, it was almost twenty minutes after six. His mom and dad, Syndi and Simon had already gone inside and Marshall was about to give up and join them when he heard a familiar voice behind him.

"Got your panties in a bunch, Teller? Don't you know I'm always fashionably late?" Dash had an enormous grin on his face as Marshall turned around. The younger boy was overjoyed to see his weird friend but felt he should at least pretend to be mad.

"Dash! Glad you made it but seriously, twenty minutes late? That's pretty rude, you promised to be on time." Marshall noticed Dash was wearing new clothes. "Nice threads, man! Which store did you, um, liberate them from?"

Dash was wearing a nice grey turtleneck sweater underneath a very expensive looking brown leather jacket. Instead of his usual battered pants, he had on a new pair of jet-black skinny jeans and he was wearing a grey wool ski cap that matched his sweater. His hands were encased in stylish leather gloves that matched his jacket. Only his black grunge-style boots were old.

"Teller, I am deeply offended! You assume I _stole_ these? I'll have you know I acquired them quite legally from Mr. Radford at World O'Stuff. He found them in an old box and said I might as well have them since he was just going to toss them out." Dash turned around, modeling his new clothes. Mars knew he was clowning around but he also knew Dash was really proud to own something nice for a change.

"Dude! You're hot! Um, I mean the clothes, not you, well you too, oh hell, you look really great, man!" Mars knew that Mr. Radford must have ordered them especially for Dash, they fit him perfectly. This confirmed something that Mars had suspected all along, that Mr. Radford is a very nice man with a great big old heart.

They made their way past the crowd and through the gate. Mr. and Mrs. Teller were running the hot chocolate table and motioned for the boys to come over.

"Mars, who is your handsome friend?" Mrs. Teller teased Dash, hugging him. "You look very nice! Doesn't he, Edgar?" She nudged her husband with her elbow.

"What? Oh, yes, you look quite fashionable, Dash! How are you? It's good to see you again." Marshall's dad shook the boy's hand vigorously.

"Thanks, you two. I'm good. Mars here sort of insisted I show up at this thing, I'm not really the party type." Dash smiled at Marshall and patted him on the back. Although he would never admit it, it was obvious he was enjoying spending time with him.

"Well, I'm glad he did! Here, you boys drink up, it's chilly this evening!" Mrs. Teller handed them each a Styrofoam cup of steaming hot chocolate. "Thanks, mom. You guys seen Simon?"

"He's already out on the ice, there he is, the boy with the red stocking hat, he's coming this way!" Simon whizzed past the Tellers and Dash without even looking up. He had been ice skating since he was old enough to walk and was really very good at it. The boys finished up their chocolate and were eager to get going.

"I'm teaching Dash how to skate, wish us luck!" The boys waved goodbye and headed over to the skate rental stand. Normally they would have to pay $10 each but tonight, as Marshall had promised, everything was free.

"Hello boys! What size skates can I fix you up with?" The booth was operated by Mr. Morton, Marshall's pre-algebra teacher. The boy despised math in all forms but he liked his teacher well enough, the guy was pretty cool, always telling lame jokes and trying his best to make math fun for his students.

"Hi Mr. Morton! Size 11 for me, Dash what size skates?" Mars realized his friend was clueless and re-phrased the question. "What size shoes do you wear?" Dash was still stumped. Mars looked exasperated and threw his hands in the air. "Seriously? How can you not know your own shoe size?"

Mr. Morton stepped in and saved Dash any further embarrassment. "Come over here, son and sit down." The kind teacher led him to a bench next to the stall. He stared at the boy's grunge boots. "Please remove your, um footwear." While Dash was unlacing his boots, Mr. Morton retrieved a very stylish pair of black skates with red trim and handed them to Marshall. The boy sat down next to his friend and began taking off his sneakers.

Dash pulled off his boots, revealing a pair of ancient, worn, and very thin white cotton socks. Both his big toes were exposed. Mr. Morton magically produced a pair of thick wool socks and handed them to Dash. "I think you might do better with these." Dash protested but the man insisted he take them. Once he had on the socks, Mr. Morton took out a tape measure and quickly deduced the proper size. "A perfect nine, just what I thought!"

Mars helped Dash lace up his skates. "They have to be really tight or your ankles will wobble around and you'll get killed." Dash looked horrified. Mars noticed his reaction and laughed. "Well, not _killed_ , but trust me, you don't want wobbly ankles out there!" Once Mars was satisfied Dash's skates were on correctly, he helped him stand up.

"Now look, hold on to me, _do not let go_ , ok? It's gonna seem weird at first but just stand there and get used to them." Dash stood and insisted he was fine and demanded to start skating, after all he didn't go through all of this just to stand around. Mars very slowly led his friend to the edge of the rink, and told him to hold onto the railing. "Ok, I'm going to let go, watch what I do, then you can try it."

Mars moved out onto the ice and stopped. "Ok, this is how you start off." He placed one foot slightly behind the other, angled outward a bit, and pushed off. He was propelled straight ahead about ten feet. He stopped and went back for Dash. "Can you do that? Want me to show you again?"

Dash was insulted. "I'm not a baby! Of course I can do that!"

"Ok, Mr. Bigshot, let's go! Hold onto me, though, I'm serious. _Do not let go_. Landing on your ass on hard ice is painful, so ..."

Dash chimed in, "Don't let go, yeah, I got it, let's rock!"

The boys stood side by side and waited for the main crowd of skaters to pass them. Dash had a death grip on Marshall's arm as the two of them slowly pushed off together. They coasted to a stop and pushed off again, and again. Before long they were actually skating around the large rink. Dash was beside himself with glee.

"Teller! This is so completely awesome! Let's go faster!" Dash felt he could go solo but obediently held onto Marshall. They completed two laps before heading for the rail.

"Dash, you're a natural! Are you sure you never skated before?" Mars was proud of his friend. He was a good skater for a beginner and in his sexy new clothes, he was attracting a lot of looks. "You got this, buddy, let's go skating! Stay with me though, you don't have to hold on this time but try not to get too far away, and if you need help, just yell. You ready?"

"You know it, let's show these yokels how to skate!" The boys pushed off together and slowly picked up speed. Simon whizzed past them making a rude gesture, not even slowing down. Dash took off after him. Mars yelled for him to wait but Dash kept picking up speed. He skated faster and faster, passing by dozens of more experienced skaters. He went even faster and saw Simon just ahead of him. In a sudden burst of speed, Dash whizzed past the younger boy, turned back and stuck out his tongue. That was a _big mistake_. He failed to notice the curve in front of him and went sailing right through the thin wooden railing, breaking it into a million splinters. Dash slammed into a snow bank, sending ice crystals a good ten feet into the air.

A crowd of people formed around the accident site. Simon pushed through the spectators just as Mars caught up with him. The two stared at the huge pile of snow with a Dash X-shaped hole in the center. Some of the other skaters laughed but Marshall and Simon realized their friend may have been seriously hurt, they started digging him out with their hands.

"Dash! Hang on! We'll have you out in a second!" Mars dug frantically along with Simon. A couple of older boys joined in and between the four of them, they reduced the snow pile to nothing in just under a minute. Dash was nowhere to be seen.

" _Seriously?"_ Mars was confused. He had seen Dash swallowed up by the snow bank with his own eyes and now he was simply gone, vanished into thin air. He called at the top of his lungs. _"Dash? Dash!"_ There was no answer _._

Marshall Teller plopped down butt first in the cold, wet snow and sat there thinking; he rested his elbows on his knees and rested his head in his hands. He felt like screaming, or crying, or maybe both. Having a friend like Dash X could be very trying at times.


	3. The Twilight Zone

Dash was covered with snow as he crashed into the wall. "WTF," he thought. One moment he was skating with Mars and Simon and the next he was sailing across some kind of smooth floor inside of a room. He didn't have time to think before he ran out of floor and crashed hard into the room's back wall, knocking him flat on his back. Dash jumped to his feet and because he was still wearing skates, he wobbled around for several seconds before finally leaning against the wall for stability. He looked around frantically, ready to confront whomever or whatever was messing with him but the room was empty, just a plain rectangle with a grey floor and white ceiling and white walls. There was no furniture of any kind and the bright light flooding the space seemed to be flowing down from the ceiling without benefit of any kind of fixture. There was no visible entrance or exit. Even for Eerie, this was majorly weird.

Dash sat on the floor with his back leaning against the wall and started to unlace his skates. If he had to make a run for it, there is no way he could have gotten away from an enemy wearing those things. Besides, he thought, the blades are pretty sharp and would make a nice weapon if he was cornered. Dash wished he had his old boots to put on, but his sock feet would just have to do for now.

Back in Eerie, Simon stood behind Marshall and scanned the crowd for Dash, first he looked at the skaters still on the ice, and then the people at the refreshment and skate rental tables. "No sign of him anywhere, Mars. It's like he just disappeared." When his friend failed to say anything in return, Simon turned around. "Mars?" Nobody was there. Marshall had been sitting on the remains of the snow bank not 6 inches from him just a second ago and now he was gone. " _Marshall Eugene Teller, that is NOT funny!_ Marshall? Mars?" Simon was worried, scared, and pissed off all at the same time. He looked around frantically for Marshall but to no avail. He concluded that whatever had snatched Dash had gotten Marshall as well. He quickly realized that his two friends were in the exact same spot where he was currently standing when they had mysteriously vanished. "Oh no, you're not getting me, too!" Simon jumped away, back onto the ice, and skated away at top speed. He totally had to pee.


	4. Trapped

Mars was so engrossed in thought he failed to notice the change in his surroundings. Besides, he had his eyes closed as he tried to figure out what the heck had just happened and where Dash had gotten off to, boys simply don't vanish into thin air. Or maybe they do. This was Eerie, Indiana after all.

Dash was startled by the sudden materialization of a person in the middle of the room. Although his back was turned towards him, Dash immediately recognized the form of Marshall Teller. His friend was sitting with his elbows resting on his knees and his head in his hands. Dash spoke up. "Mars!"

Marshall mumbled an answer. "Leave me alone, Simon, I'm trying to figure this out."

Dash played along and tried to imitate Simon's voice. "Well, I think Dash was transported to some weird empty room and you were transported there, too."

Marshall was annoyed but curious. "Whaaaaaaat? What are you talking about Simon?" Marshall opened his eyes and was shocked to find that he was no longer sitting in the snow at the Eerie Municipal Skating Rink. He was indeed in some weird empty room. He turned to look at Simon but instead found the missing-in-action Dash X.

"About time you opened your eyes, Sherlock. Welcome to the Twilight Zone." Dash, despite the circumstances and the probable danger he and Marshall were in, gave his friend a big toothy smile. Dash was always smiling, it was his thing, like he never-ever took anything too seriously. "Listen, take off your skates before standing up!"

Dash meant that as sincere advice but it sounded like an order which Marshall, being 13-years old and male, promptly ignored. He stood up, discovered ice skates weren't designed for whatever surface he was standing on and after a few seconds of desperately trying to maintain his balance fell backwards as his legs shot out from under him. He landed on his ass.

"Ouch! That looked painful, Teller! Are you alright?" Although Dash was concerned about his friend he could not help but break into a chuckle and then a full-scaled belly laugh. Marshall ignored him. He just wanted to lay still for a minute.

"OK, go ahead and say I told you so." Marshall winced in pain. He had landed incredibly hard and was in quite a bit of discomfort. "I think I broke my butt!" That of course sent Dash into a fresh fit of laughter. "Dude, I don't think you can actually break it! You probably just banged your coccyx when you fell. From what I hear that can hurt like hell."

Marshall gave him a blank look. "My what?" Dash knelt beside his friend and started to unlace his skates for him. "Hey, I can do that myself!" Dash ignored him and took off the younger boy's ice skates. He looked Marshall in the eye. "Tailbone, you banged your tailbone, it's called the coccyx. You need to lay still for a few minutes before trying to get up."

Marshall immediately tried to stand only to have the surprisingly strong Dash X forcefully push his shoulders down. "Look, I'm not trying to order you around so stop with the teenage defiance for once and listen to me, lay still for god's sake. Despite what I said earlier you actually can break your coccyx, so yes in fact you may have broken your butt. Please, just lay still, I don't want you to get hurt even worse. If you just banged your tailbone the pain should go away in a couple of minutes."

The injured boy actually listened. Dash was making sense and his concern for his welfare touched Mars deeply. Despite their constant bickering, he realized Dash was in fact a good friend who was always looking out for him, even if he did come off as obnoxious at times. Marshall wiped his eyes. "Um, um, my eyes are watering, must be the cold air in here."

Dash wanted to say it was at least 80 degrees Fahrenheit in the room but he held his tongue. "Yeah, that's probably it, cold air." He put his hand on Marshall's shoulder as the boy tried to get control of himself. He assumed his friend was crying from the pain. Marshall was actually crying from a combination of embarrassment and a wave of emotions brought on by Dash's actions. Puberty was hell.

"Well, well, look who we have here! Two little mice caught in a trap!" Dash immediately turned in the direction of the voice and Marshall opened his eyes. Both boys were startled to see Ned, the old bartender and custodian at Eerie's Loyal Order of Corn. "What happened to young Mr. Teller?"

"Ned!" Dash jumped to his feet. "How did you get here?"

"Easy there, I'm actually in my lab quite a distance away. What you're seeing is an interactive hologram. Is the Teller boy injured?" Ned looked concerned. As Dash explained what had happened, the ex-bartender and current mad scientist and inter-dimensional traveler broke into a grin. "Oh, I see. He's probably fine, help him up and see if he can walk."

Dash did as instructed and Marshall stood up. The pain eased as he put weight on his legs. He experimentally took a few steps. He was definitely sore but the worst of the pain seemed to be over.

Ned coughed a few times to get the boys' attention. "Now both of you listen closely. You don't have much time." Ned quickly explained that the two of them had been caught in a trap deployed by a band of criminals known as The Traders. They travel between planets, stealing everything they can lay their hands on and setting up transporter traps to snatch humans. They sell them to the highest bidder. Sometimes the prisoners were forced into hard labor, but usually their fate was much, much worse. Ned said that some races found humans from Earth to be quite tasty and paid a premium price.

Mars was horrified but Dash had listened carefully and started asking questions. "OK, so that doesn't explain how you found us. Where are we exactly? Are we still on Earth? Can you get us out of here?"

"Easy, young man. I'll explain everything if you give me a chance. A radiation detector in my lab sounded an alarm that there was a sudden and dramatic increase in theta-band radiation in the center of Eerie. Theta waves are the signature of two things, warp engines on large starships, and localized but powerful transporter devices like the traps used by The Traders. I triangulated the location of the source and found it was at the Eerie skating rink. I waited for it to activate and followed it's transmission to this location. I projected my holo and found you two. Then I destroyed the trap entrance with a focused energy beam so no one else would be caught. It's as simple as that and you are still very much on Earth. You are located exactly 4.2 miles north north-west of where you were trapped, in a place I believe the locals call Markham Woods, and yes, I think I can get you out but we must hurry."

Dash was more than ready to get the hell out of the trap and listened for Ned's instructions. Marshall was still hung up on one thing. "Did he say tasty? Does that mean what I think it means?" Dash ignored him. He was prepared to pull Marshall out by the scruff of his neck if it came to that and it probably would. The boy wasn't exactly good in a crisis.

Ned explained he had detected a smaller room behind the one they are in and what appeared to be an exit to the outside. He thought he could trigger both the opening to the other room and the exit by using a strong electro-magnetic pulse. He told the boys to stand-by and be ready to move quickly.

The hologram of Ned gave a countdown. "3-2-1 NOW!" Silently, a panel in the wall of the room opened. "Boys, run for your lives, go!"

Dash didn't hesitate and he didn't wait for Marshall to get it together. He stood behind his friend and physically shoved him through the door and followed him inside to a much smaller room. It was filled with clothes. All sorts of clothes, shirts, pants, coats, and lots of footwear. The exit to the outside was open and the boys could feel the cold night air rushing inside. Mars started to run through to freedom but Dash stopped to pick up a pair of boots that looked to be his size, and a pair of sneakers he hoped would fit Marshall's weirdly large feet. Clutching his loot, Dash followed the younger boy outside just in the nick of time. The exit slammed shut behind them seconds after Dash cleared it.

The boys ran as fast as they could until the trap was out of sight. "Mars, wait up!" Dash came to a stop and sat down on the cold snow covered ground. He tossed Marshall the sneakers he had picked up and started to put on his new pair of borrowed boots. "I'll think we'll be better off if we had something on our feet besides socks!"

Mars was grateful for Dash's quick thinking. He thought about why the room they had just come from was filled with discarded clothes and what it meant about the fate of their owners, they were probably all dead. He realized that if things had gone just a little bit differently, he and Dash could very well have been someone's dinner. He wiped his eyes. Dash gave him a snarky look. "Cold air making those eyes water again?" Marshall nodded then hugged Dash tight and buried his face in his friend's shoulder.

Dash didn't resist. He understood about puberty and raging teen hormones and knew Mars could be very emotional at times and simply patted his friend on the back. After a few moments he spoke up. "So, if we're done being emo, can we please get going? I wanna make it back while there's still some hot chocolate!"

It was a little after 10:00 when the pair of tired and disheveled boys slowly walked through the gate of the skating rink. Simon saw them first and ran up to them. "So, it figures you two are together! Where the hell have you guys been? Half the town has been out searching for you buttheads and your mom and dad are worried sick, Marshall! What do you have to say for yourselves?"

Marshall Teller and Dash X found themselves surrounded by a crowd of very annoyed people. They knew no one, with the exception of Simon, would ever believe the truth. The boys exchanged glances and nodded. Mars spoke for them both. "It was just a joke, we're really sorry. We pretended to vanish then we got lost in Markham Woods and couldn't find our way out. We're really, really, really sorry you were worried." Marshall's parents were NOT impressed by the apology. His mom grabbed him by the left ear and unceremoniously marched him out the gate and into the family station wagon. Simon left with his mother but not before Dash had a chance to tell him at least some of the real story.

An hour after he was ordered to bed by his parents, Marshall Eugene Teller turned on his flashlight under the covers and began writing his report. "It was just another day in Eerie, Indiana. The center of weirdness for planet Earth and maybe the entire universe." Exhausted, Mars fell asleep without writing another word. He woke up the next morning still holding the pen in his hand.


End file.
